The Bigger Picture

Breathe. It happened, it’s over. Taylor Hall is a Devil and yet if you took a quick scroll through Oilers twitter you’d think Peter Chiarelli is actually “The Devil”.

But Chiarelli had his hands tied. The same people you see on twitter saying that Chiarelli is an idiot for doing this trade and that he should of gotten someone better are the same people that would be outraged had he not been able to make a move for a top 4 right shot defenseman this summer.

To sit on twitter and say Peter Chiarelli did not exhaust every possible option when looking for a right shot defenseman is completely idiotic. By all accounts, this man worked tirelessly to get something done, and at the end of the day, this is what was out there.

I’m not here to say Chiarelli did a great job at all. He lost this trade. Taylor Hall is the 3rd best left-winger in the NHL. He is an elite level finisher. But the Oilers had a surplus in one area: skilled forwards. Here is their depth chart should Hall have stayed:

Hall

McDavid

Eberle

Lucic

Nugent-Hopkins

Puljujarvi

Pouliot

Draisaitl

Yakupov

Maroon

Letestu

Kassian

And their depth chart as of now (they’re getting Lucic):

Lucic

McDavid

Eberle

Pouliot

Nugent-Hopkins

Puljujarvi

Maroon

Draisaitl

Yakupov

Hendricks

Letestu

Kassian

They still have a franchise center, they still have 4 competent top 6 wingers. Although I believe Eberle won’t be here, but that’s a whole different issue. Even if they deal Eberle it’s as simple as putting Draisaitl back on the wing.

This forward group lost a very big piece this afternoon, but it’s still an exceptional collection of young talent….and on the back end…

Well just look at their defence before this deal was made:

NO ONE

Sekera

NO ONE

Klefbom

FAYNE

Davidson

GRYBA

Nurse

Notice how i had to put NO ONE in that top slot. That’s because the Oilers have no body capable of playing over 20 minutes a night on the right side.

Also notice how when I re-did the forward group without Hall, there wasn’t a slot where I had to write “NO ONE”. Because Lucic can play in a top 6 very easily. Pouliot and Maroon are both experienced/capable middle 6 forwards. They had players who could slide around on the left-wing. It was an area of strength.

Once again, when it comes to their top four on the right side, THEY HAD NO ONE!

The fans wanted action, they wanted someone from the core moved. They got someone from the core moved and in return they got a young impactful top 4 defenseman with the potential to be so much more.

If this move is anything, its an anti-Oilers move. They traded a young forward for help on defense, and now fans feel the need to cry because it wasn’t the exact shiny toy they wanted.

The Oilers were never going to get any of the following players for Taylor Hall:

-Erik Karlsson

-PK Subban

-Roman Josi

-Shea Weber

-Brent Burns

-Drew Doughty

-Duncan Keith

-Kris Letang

-Alex Pietrangelo

It’s beyond ridiculous to think that would happen. Its also beyond ridiculous to think thats what his value was. Value should only be measured in what you can get for a player, anything other than that is fictional, its make-believe value. I could sit here and say all day that this car I have is worth 100,000, but if all I could sell it for is 50,000, then what is the real value of the car?

This is what Taylor Halls value was. Maybe not to Oilers fans, but to the rest of the league, this is what teams were willing to give up. So if that’s the best offer out there, then THAT is what Taylor Halls value is.

Chiarelli could have waited all summer long to get a “real top pairing defenseman” and we would have been going into training camp with Jason Demers on a $6 million contract and nothing else.

My final thoughts on this subject:

The Edmonton Oilers traded Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson.

The Edmonton Oilers lost this trade.

The Edmonton Oilers are absolutely a better team because of this trade.It’s a brutal bullet to bite, but when you’re hands are tied, sometimes biting the bullet is all you can do.

The Bigger Picture was last modified: June 30th, 2016 by Tyler Yaremchuk

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